Selecting Colors for Multi-Family Residential Properties

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First impressions last a lifetime, or at least long enough for a prospective resident to drive by. Few exterior characteristics can turn people away from a property, or reduce the quality of life for those who reside there, as quickly as the wrong paint on your building.

Sound Decisions Begin with Facts

Sound management requires sound decisions based on fact, not opinion. Multi-family residential paint selection requires more than scattering paint chips across your desk and picking the one that looks good to you.

Consider these Factors When Selecting Paint

Even a color that upper management or even the CEO unanimously approve may be the wrong one. Here are four primary factors to consider.

Residents and Potential Residents

What is your target demographic? Young families, professionals, retirees, or a mix of all?

Retirees generally prefer the comfortable, traditional colors that they are accustomed to, while young families may want something bright and vivid. Professionals may prefer a more elegant, subdued color pallet. Know the demographics of your residents and understand their preferences.

Architectural Style

Use exterior surface material and architectural effects to guide your color selection. Large buildings painted in one neutral color can take on an institutional look, with bland walls hovering over everyone who enters.

Break up large exterior expanses by using color to emphasize architectural features, making larger buildings feel less expansive and overwhelming. Smaller buildings benefit as well, the details giving a tidy, well-kept appearance. The right colors balance a building’s overall visual appeal and give it “pop” in the right places to add character.

Surrounding Community

Multi-family residential paint selection should also take into consideration that the residents are part of a larger surrounding community. The idea is to make your project stand out as an asset to the neighborhood and the nicest property on the block, without clashing with surrounding styles and community preferences.

People should look at your building with an appreciation that it is a welcome part of the neighborhood. By using complementary colors and accents, your property can fit in with its surroundings and attract positive attention at the same time.

Regional Characteristics

If you travel around the country, you find variations in the colors used in residential properties. Desert gold tones and colorful flourishes in the southwest give way to earth tones in the Midwest and then to colonial styles in the northeast emphasizing reds and blues.

In the south, our color choices inland tend towards the warm and inviting and veer to pastels and ocean colors near the shore. Using regional colors in a fresh way and emphasizing architectural features ensures that your paint selection adds value to your property.

The wrong multi-family residential paint selection can be an expensive mistake. The right one will enhance residents’ quality of life, attract new residents and increase profitability. In the end, those are the factors that count.